Hoshiarpur: 10 held for firing at cloth shop, demanding Rs 5 crore ransom

Our Correspondent

Hoshiarpur, May 7

The district police have arrested 10 accused for their involvement in the case of firing at Chawla Cloth House in Mahilpur on February 11 and at village Bugran on March 4 by members of Kaushal Saurav Choudhary gang and demanding a ransom of Rs 5 crore.

Addressing a press conference at the local Police Lines, SSP Surendra Lamba said that separate cases were registered at Mahilpur police station in connection with the above two incidents.

On February 11, the accused had escaped after firing at Chawla Cloth House. After this, firing was also done at the shop owner’s house. On March 4, firing was done by unknown persons at the residence of Gurpreet Singh alias Gopi, in village Bugran. A special team was formed under SP (Investigation) Sarabjit Singh Bahia to investigate the case. After a thorough probe, two of the accused, Gurjinder Singh alias Gandhi and Sonu and Simarveer Singh alias Shafi, were arrested for transporting the shooters involved in the above cases and their weapons from one place to another, in a car. Shafi was also wanted in the case of firing for ransom on the vehicle of a travel agent at Delta Chamber in Jalandhar.

On the basis of preliminary interrogation of the accused, another accused in the said case, Gurpreet Singh alias Peeti, a resident of village Akhara, district Ludhiana, was also traced. On the basis of his interrogation, another accused Banwari Lal, involved in the February 11 incident, was brought from jail on a production warrant. After his interrogation, another accused Pradeep Kumar alias Bantu, was arrested from Bijnor, Uttar Pradesh. Ghanshyam, who linked Banwari Lal to this gang, was also arrested from Uttar Pradesh.

During interrogation of the accused, it came to light that the said people had committed these crimes on the instructions of their Dubai associates —- Pawan Kumar alias Sonu, a resident of Mangalpur, South Rohini, Delhi and Gurdeep Singh alias Deepa, a resident of village Phalahi, district Hoshiarpur. According to the police, Deepa’s mother Mahinder Kaur and Kaushal Chaudhary’s wife Manisha, who used to handle the ransom money, were also involved in these incidents.

To carry out the above crimes, Deepa also took the help of her associate Jagdeep Singh alias Daula, a resident of village Mazari, district Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar. Jagdeep got the accused who committed crimes at both the places, shifted from one place to another in his Swift car and he also had some weapons used in the crime. Another accused in the case, Kuldeep Singh alias Kuldeep Thakur, was brought from Tihar Jail on production warrant. On the basis of his tracing, success was achieved in recovery of two pistols and a revolver along with bullets.

The SSP said that during investigations, it came to light that the firing incident in February was carried out by Banwari Lal, Pradeep Kumar and Kuldeep Singh, whereas the firing incident in March was carried out by Pradeep Kumar and Kuldeep Singh.

So far, the police have arrested Banwari Lal, Pradeep Kumar, Kuldeep Singh, Ghanshyam Vishwakarma, Gurjinder Singh, Simarveer Singh, Harpreet Kaur, Mahinder Kaur, Satinder Singh and Manisha in the case. The five absconding accused in the case were Gurpreet Singh Peeti, Jagdeep Singh Daula, Gurdeep Singh Deepa, Pawan Kumar and Kaushal Chaudhary.

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